The current Bluetooth specification (BT 5.0) only supports a maximum data rate of 3 Mbps (megabits per second) in BR (basic rate) or EDR (enhanced data rate) protocols or modes, and only supports a maximum of 2 Mbps in the low energy (LE) protocol. These data rates are either too low to support new applications such as 3D or multi-channel high resolution audio, or take up too much air time. For example, the use of some applications such as high fidelity music streaming over Bluetooth may require significant transmission time, interfering with other wireless protocols and technologies utilizing the same frequencies, such as 802.11 (WiFi), ZigBee, or Long Term Evolution (LTE) cellular networks utilizing the 2.4 GHz industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) radio bands. In particular, Bluetooth LE may have difficulty supporting streaming audio because of its lower data rate, despite having a more efficient data packet structure than some other protocols.
The details of various embodiments of the methods and systems are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below.